You are probably thinking "What" no frame, what the hell does that mean. Well, let me explain. We live in horse country, there are lots and lots and lots and lots of flies. Have I said how many flies there are. I cannot put a traditional screen on our front door, one because it's a double door (and I think it would look funny) and two, because we have a blind dog. My son's dog, Lord Darth Vader, who (whom?) he named when he was 6 even though the dog is snow white, had his eyes removed last year. Thank goodness I was working at the time. The dog had a degenerative disease of the retina called PRA (Progressive Retinal Atrophy) and then his lenses luxated (fell back into his eyes). All very gross. He gets around on the property just fine, in fact you wouldn't know he was blind if you saw him from afar walking and running on the property.

He was a rescue that someone, during the time of the housing crash, had tied up in an abandoned house and left to die. He was about 5 months old at the time, had all his adult teeth plus all his baby teeth and demodex mange. He was one day away from being euthanized when we adopted him. Undershot jaw and all..

What this all means is that we cannot have traditional screens on any of the doors or he can't get out. We have dog doors out in the garage that go outside but he just won't use them. My mom was at HomeDepot and happened across their "frameless" door screens. They have a rod at the top and the two pieces of screening material slide on like curtains. There are magnets that help to hold it together and you can use the velcro to stick it to the frame of your door. I bought one for my door leading into the garage but it is about an inch to an inch and a half short. I didn't like that. Besides to cover my front door it would be $40. Yes, without a job, I'm cheap. So instead I bought screening material for $12.95. I had some left over birch 1x2 that I had already stained and varnished. The only other thing that I would need are weights and magnets. For temporary weights, I cut 1 1/2" wide by 7" long pieces of left over laminate flooring.

I should have taken more pictures but I was in a hurry to get this done as I was also working on another project that I will be posting soon (it's not done yet). I laid the screening material out and measured how long that I wanted it, don't include the wood or where you will add the weights. I then folded a portion of the bottom twice and sewed a seam, this area is for the weights. I then cut it in half length wise for the opening. Since mine is a double door and we like to open both during the summer, cuz it gets smokin' hot in our house, I cut it where the door handles are. Here is where I blew it, so don't do my mistake. You need the two pieces to overlap when you attach it. That is why the 6" larger than your door frame. You need it to overlap the frame of your door on the sides and to over lap by at least two inches in the middle. I am going to add a strip down the middle to take care of the problem. Lay the wood at the top of the screen with excess screen to the right of the wood, have the side you want facing out be face down. See the picture below. The bulk of my screen was to the left in this picture. See the bottom right arrow, it shows the excess screen beginning to fold over. From the left of my wood, my length was 81 1/2" because I wanted it hanging below my door as there is a step and I knew it would help the dog. Now, make your first row of staples so that it stays in place. Now grab the excess and fold it back so that the fold is where I have the dark line below, staple it again all the way across. Do this again by folding it back, followed by one more. After each fold, I stapled it. I left the excess to help with blocking the flies.

Hope having this picture it makes more sense. The over all length of the screen, not including the wood, is 81 1/2" and this includes where the weights are. You can see that I don't have a good overlap, I will add a strip that will have the magnets on them. I will also add magnets to that which is above. The magnets can be added by sewing a pocket from a square of screen material or any material onto the screen, and match it up with one on the other side. Overall, it took me about under 2 hours for the entire thing.

Lordy making his way out of the screen for the first time.

The pictures above are not 10 minutes after hanging the screen, he was able to make it out and back in with no problems. Our other dog, had more difficulty. She keeps running into it and then thinks that it is solid, she has been waiting for Lordy to let her out and in. She'll figure it out.